I was praying today after reading a conference talk on humility. My heart and mind were torn. I have been struggling a lot recently to feel my own worth as a person, and being reminded of how everything I am or ever hope to be was given to me through the grace of Jesus Christ gave Satan the perfect opportunity to remind me that I am nothing, and will never amount to anything. I started crying as I prayed. I knew it was Satan. I have learned enough times how “The worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” to know that God saw me differently.  I prayed “Heavenly Father, please let me just see myself as Thou seest me for just one moment. I just want to understand how things truly are.” A thought came to me. “Think of your children.” I kind of ignored it, because they are all I ever think about, and I was looking for answers right then. The thought came again. “Think of your children.” I did. I thought of Fay and how sometimes she is a gem, and sometimes I don’t know what to do with her. I thought of Carter and how he loves balls and loves yelling “NO!” as long and loud as he can. I thought of Portia and how she really doesn’t do much, and yet is pure sweetness. I thought about how much I love them–with my whole being. They are infinitely important to me, and always will be, even if they never accomplish a single thing in their lives. I will love them forever. And all I really ever want from them is for them to love me and be happy.

That was my answer.

This handsome boy has turned two years old! I realized today that for some reason turning two years old and having been around for two years doesn’t add up in my mind. It seems so crazy that my boy is a big two-year-old; but it seems like so much more than 2 years that he has been my boy. Funny how my brain doesn’t work like that. 🙂

We decided that on your birthday you get whatever you want (within reason, of course). And I feel like the things that Carter wanted today are a good way of explaining him at this stage of his life.

Carter’s favorite article of clothing is his ball pajamas. This boy loves balls! He loves playing with balls, looking at balls, wearing balls, thinking about balls, everything balls! He didn’t want to take off his ball pajamas this morning (just like every morning) and so he wore them all day, and even though they were filthy, he put them right back on after his bath tonight, because it is his birthday and he gets what he wants.

Another of Carter’s favorite things is his “monster coat.” And when we started talking about what kind of cake he might want, he latched onto the idea of “monster cake!” He has been exclaiming “monster cake!” every time somebody mentions his birthday for at least 3 weeks.

Another thing that Carter loves is shoes. (This boy likes the stuff he wears!) He got some new light-up shark sandals today, and wore them all day long, even during his nap.

Carter also has some fun food preferences. He will usually eat most of what we eat. But there are some things that he REALLY loves. Carter loves cereal! He especially loves rice crispies (he calls them “crispies” which comes out sounding something like “Yappies” and is every kind of adorable). He also really likes junk food. Check out his breakfast this morning.

For dinner he wanted meatballs–we added some pasta and fruit in there for good measure–of which he ate all he wanted!

After dinner and monster cake, Carter selected a favorite park to play at. His birthday pretty much sums him up. He loves to play, wear just the right things, and eat just the right things (in just the right quantities)!

We love our boy more every single day, and we are so grateful that he has been ours for two whole years!

I thought I would mix things up and post a bunch of videos this time! The kids’ interactions together are so much fun to watch, especially as they are getting used to another member!

This is a video that I took a few days before Portia was born. I probably watch it at least twice every day, because it just makes me SO happy! It just shows the kids being perfectly themselves, and perfectly adorable!

This is a video of Portia when she was about two weeks old being adorably grumpy about her hiccups.

 

And here is a video taken the same day of Carter loving on Portia. He does love her a lot; though sometimes he resents the attention that has been moved from him as the baby to her. Fay is in the background of this video asking for gum. It’s kind of cute too.

This video is not the highest quality; but it is just so cute! Portia usually has socks on her hands to keep her from scratching her face. Carter noticed that her hands were bare and REALLY wanted to help her get a sock on her hand.

Fay is pretty hilarious sometimes with her little imagination. Today at lunch she started squawking about something. I turned around to see her doing the following:

 

Also, here is a picture of the older kids on Easter. I didn’t post anything for Easter; but we did celebrate it and relished the opportunity to rejoice in the resurrection of the Savior and the new life of springtime!